Israel set to rewrite ME map on its own terms
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Incoming Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Thursday that Israel was prepared to rewrite the map of the Middle East on its own terms as he sought backing for his new governing coalition from parliament.
In a speech before lawmakers, Olmert said Israel was endangering itself by maintaining isolated settlements in the occupied West Bank and that it was vital to maintain its Jewish majority by separating from the Palestinians.
Olmert, whose Kadima party dominates the incoming government, said he would prefer to reach a negotiated settlement to the Middle East conflict with the Palestinian Authority but indicated that no progress in the peace process was possible while the radical Islamist movement Hamas ran its government.
He said he was prepared to act unilaterally and put into action his masterplan known as “convergence,” which will involve the uprooting of some 70,000 settlers from the occupied West Bank.
In turn, Olmert plans to cement Israel’s control over the major housing blocs in the West Bank where the vast majority of the quarter of a million Jewish settlers live.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas responded by calling for “immediate negotiations” with Israel and warned Olmert against unilateral action.
“The continuation of the scattered Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is endangering us,” Olmert told lawmakers before his government was due to be formally sworn in by the 120-member parliament.
“The bottom line is that we have to maintain a strong Jewish majority in our country and we must guarantee a defensible area where this majority can live.”
“Even if the Jewish eye sheds a tear, even if the heart is torn, we must retain the essence. We must maintain a solid and stable Jewish majority in our country.”
The spokesman for the moderate Abbas, who has responsibility for peace negotiations, reacted to the speech by reiterating the presidency’s call “to resume immediate negotiations.”
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said any unilateral measures would run into opposition. “We call on Mr Olmert to abstain from any unilateral solution because such measures feed violence and anarchy in the region,” Erakat told AFP.
Right-wing Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu also attacked Olmert’s plan, saying unilateral measures would only strengthen hardliners such as Hamas.
“There has never been a government that has given up so much ahead of time and relieves the other side of its obligations,” Netanyahu told the Knesset.
Before swearing in the Olmert cabinet, MPs unanimously elected former cabinet minister Dalia Itzik as the first woman speaker of parliament.
Hamas, meanwhile, said Thursday it was recruiting and training a security wing outlawed by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, whose deposed Fatah party has upped the ante by creating a new militia of its own.
A core of volunteer militants from Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees faction have been put through their paces in secret since Hamas interior minister Said Siam announced the unit’s creation on April 20.
“We recruited 2,000 fighters which form the core of the new force, whose principal task will be to support police and national security,” interior ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal told AFP.
The new recruits, who are expected ultimately to number around 3,000, are being instructed on weapons handling at undisclosed training grounds and will eventually complete a police training course, Abu Hilal said. He said the force would provide police back-up in combatting security anarchy, aggressions and attacks on public property and government offices which have become a near daily reality in the troubled Palestinian territories.
Yet the very announcement of the force, annulled by decree from the Palestinian Authority president, fanned the flames of a power struggle between the Hamas government and Abbas, who is overall security commander-in-chief.
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Incoming Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Thursday that Israel was prepared to rewrite the map of the Middle East on its own terms as he sought backing for his new governing coalition from parliament.
In a speech before lawmakers, Olmert said Israel was endangering itself by maintaining isolated settlements in the occupied West Bank and that it was vital to maintain its Jewish majority by separating from the Palestinians.
Olmert, whose Kadima party dominates the incoming government, said he would prefer to reach a negotiated settlement to the Middle East conflict with the Palestinian Authority but indicated that no progress in the peace process was possible while the radical Islamist movement Hamas ran its government.
He said he was prepared to act unilaterally and put into action his masterplan known as “convergence,” which will involve the uprooting of some 70,000 settlers from the occupied West Bank.
In turn, Olmert plans to cement Israel’s control over the major housing blocs in the West Bank where the vast majority of the quarter of a million Jewish settlers live.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas responded by calling for “immediate negotiations” with Israel and warned Olmert against unilateral action.
“The continuation of the scattered Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is endangering us,” Olmert told lawmakers before his government was due to be formally sworn in by the 120-member parliament.
“The bottom line is that we have to maintain a strong Jewish majority in our country and we must guarantee a defensible area where this majority can live.”
“Even if the Jewish eye sheds a tear, even if the heart is torn, we must retain the essence. We must maintain a solid and stable Jewish majority in our country.”
The spokesman for the moderate Abbas, who has responsibility for peace negotiations, reacted to the speech by reiterating the presidency’s call “to resume immediate negotiations.”
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said any unilateral measures would run into opposition. “We call on Mr Olmert to abstain from any unilateral solution because such measures feed violence and anarchy in the region,” Erakat told AFP.
Right-wing Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu also attacked Olmert’s plan, saying unilateral measures would only strengthen hardliners such as Hamas.
“There has never been a government that has given up so much ahead of time and relieves the other side of its obligations,” Netanyahu told the Knesset.
Before swearing in the Olmert cabinet, MPs unanimously elected former cabinet minister Dalia Itzik as the first woman speaker of parliament.
Hamas, meanwhile, said Thursday it was recruiting and training a security wing outlawed by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, whose deposed Fatah party has upped the ante by creating a new militia of its own.
A core of volunteer militants from Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees faction have been put through their paces in secret since Hamas interior minister Said Siam announced the unit’s creation on April 20.
“We recruited 2,000 fighters which form the core of the new force, whose principal task will be to support police and national security,” interior ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal told AFP.
The new recruits, who are expected ultimately to number around 3,000, are being instructed on weapons handling at undisclosed training grounds and will eventually complete a police training course, Abu Hilal said. He said the force would provide police back-up in combatting security anarchy, aggressions and attacks on public property and government offices which have become a near daily reality in the troubled Palestinian territories.
Yet the very announcement of the force, annulled by decree from the Palestinian Authority president, fanned the flames of a power struggle between the Hamas government and Abbas, who is overall security commander-in-chief.
